In the 2008 elections, Carol Shea Porter made a major point of repeatedly criticizing Jeb Bradley for taking a $15,000 campaign contribution from a Congressional colleague who was then under investigation. She said over and over again that Jeb Bradley should not wait until there was a “conviction”, charging a cover-up. She admonished Jeb to return the money and criticized him for a lack of leadership over this matter. And, even though Bradley was the first member of Congress to return such campaign contributions she continued to pound away at him.This is very clear to see on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjpverMkHM
But, it seems that Carol Shea Porter has very conveniently forgotten her own words! Shea Porter voted yesterday to overlook an Ethics Committee investigation and allow Rep. Charlie Rangel to continue to serve as Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Moreover, she has reportedly accepted a combined $14,000 from Charlie Rangel’s Congressional PAC, his leadership committee, and the National Leadership PAC. By her own logic and rhetoric she should immediately return these funds.
Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats in Washington are doing their best to cover up a major scandal and protect Charlie Rangel. Mr. Rangel’s offenses are serious violations of the law; repeatedly failing to report hundreds of thousands in income and cheating on his taxes over the years. Ironically, it is his committee that sets tax legislation for the rest of us. One of the ways he is clearly clinging to power is by using his fund raising muscle as a major party boss to bring in extensive campaign donations and spreading them around to his Democratic colleagues including – Carol Shea Porter.
How Shea Porter’s views have changed! Here is yet another example of the corruption of money on Capitol Hill.
Washington has a strange way of warping the way people vote when they get there. This is largely because we send people to Washington who want to make a political career for themselves and thus they seek to ingratiate themselves with Beltway and Party leaders. In so doing, they quickly become Washington’s Representatives to their home state, forgetting that they were sent to become their state’s Representative to Washington.
Carol Shea Porter – be New Hampshire’s Representative to Washington! Represent New Hampshire’s demand for transparency and integrity in our Congressional leaders or get out!
Bob Bestani is a candidate for the U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University